There are not too many constants in professional wrestling, the ever-changing, here-today, gone-tomorrow, at times unforgiving business of sports entertainment.

But for the few generational stars who managed to buck that trend, they are embraced as special.

Names like Chris Jericho, The Undertaker, Kane, Triple H, Bobby Roode and Terry Funk are synonymous with longevity. Add to that list Christopher Daniels, a guy who hasn’t enjoyed the giant spotlight of World Wrestling Entertainment but managed a near three-decade career that continues to this day, something many from that list cannot say. The fact that Daniels has done so without the mainstream WWE exposure perhaps puts him in a league all of his own.

Now enjoying his latest run with Ring of Honor, a company that, like Daniels, has bucked all odds to thrive in an oft-times unrelenting, unsympathetic industry, even Daniels admits that no one could have predicted that ROH would be going stronger than ever as it approaches its 16th anniversary show this week in Las Vegas.

"When we first started doing Ring of Honor, we had no idea it was going to grow to where it is now,” Daniels, who was one of the Day 1 talents with ROH, said in a telephone interview to promote this weekend’s gala. “We've been very fortunate. We've had some great people behind the scenes who have helped Ring of Honor grow, from the people who have been creatively steering the boat to Joe Koff and Sinclair Broadcasting coming in 2011 to help us get to the point where we are now.”

Where ROH is now is very comfortably positioned for the long haul in professional wrestling, owned by a major broadcaster and airing on its stations, with a roster filled with world-class talent and a reputation for excellence and producing one star after another. In fact, if not for Ring of Honor, today’s WWE fans likely never would have come to know names like CM Punk, Daniel Bryan, Seth Rollins, Cesaro and many others.

Today’s ROH roster boasts a who’s who of top wrestling talent, names like Daniels, The Young Bucks, former WWE star Cody Rhodes and the Briscoes. Daniels said that ROH has long been developing young talent in pro wrestling.

"I feel like Ring of Honor has been a destination for guys that are coming up through the independent scene and for a lot of the talent, it's their first opportunity to be seen on a national scale,” he said, adding that he doesn’t believe ROH qualifies as an independent company given its national TV deal for the last seven years and its nearly two-decade existence. “Talent that is coming up in professional wrestling, they look at Ring of Honor as an opportunity to sort of break through on a worldwide scale.”

ROH’s roster is so talented that it’s becoming increasingly difficult for young talent to crack the ROH roster. “Only the best of the best are able to actually make it and sort of thrive and survive in Ring of Honor,” said Daniels.

While professional wrestling has enjoyed ebbs and flows of success, on a national scale, for decades, independent wrestling is currently enjoying a renaissance, with several smaller companies thriving. On any given night, there can be multiple shows happening in a market, something unheard of in the business. Daniels believes the ROH model of slow and steady growth is one many upstart companies have employed, which has led to indy wrestling’s boom.

"I feel like pro wrestling is sort of like 'A rising tide raises all ships,’” Daniels said. I think the popularity of Ring of Honor has sort of bled into the popularity of independent wrestling and vice versa. I feel like not everybody is able to get a chance to see ROH live, but the increased desire to see pro wrestling live has sort of helped a lot of independent companies across North America sort of build their own fan bases and the more that that happens in terms of pro wrestling companies sort of gaining popularity, then all of sudden you start to see the wrestlers who are competing in these companies become more and more well known.”

That’s a formula for success, according to Daniels.

“It's just the natural progression of talent sort of growing as performers and getting their opportunities on independent shows and then making their way whether it's to Ring of Honor or WWE or TNA or Lucha Underground. The opportunity to get seen on that national scale, that's where all these guys coming up are looking to get to the point where they're earning their living being a professional wrestler."

Being one of ROH’s so-called “founding fathers,” along with Bryan Danielson (aka Daniel Bryan) and Low Ki, Daniels admits that he takes great pride in having been a Day 1 ROH guy when he looks back on its history.

"When (my career) comes to the end, I think if people look back on Ring of Honor and say that Christopher Daniels had a hand in building it to the point where they are now, I'll certainly be very proud of that. I feel like I've put a lot of effort into the matches every time that I've been a part of Ring of Honor -- and there have been separate runs for me here, including this current one. For every one, I feel like there are high points and matches that I'm very proud of and point to my position, I guess, in Ring of Honor history, but certainly any part of Ring of Honor's status in the world of professional wrestling, if I had any part in that, or anybody feels like a lot of that has to do with the work that I put in the ring, I'm certainly proud of all of that."

Some 25 years into his career, with no end in sight, puts Daniels into exclusive company so far as very few wrestlers today can lay claim to be closing in on 30 years in the business. Daniels has drawn comparisons to legendary Canadian Chris Jericho, who continues to reinvent his character and work in the wrestling business decades into his career as well, albeit on a reduced schedule. For Daniels, those comparisons are humbling.

"Any comparison to Chris Jericho in a positive light, to me, is awesome,” the soon to be 47-year-old Daniels said. “I've always felt like Chris was someone who I looked up to and certainly am inspired by. When people talk about how often I've reinvented myself, you've got to look at Chris as the gold standard for doing that. Even in the last couple of months, the things that he's accomplished, that's a lofty goal, so any comparison to that guy is certainly appreciated.”

Daniels is referring to Jericho’s wildly successful match against fellow Winnipeg-native Kenny Omega for New Japan Pro Wrestling. “I sort of use the things that Chris does as sort of a template to try and follow that idea of never staying in one position too long and continuing to try and be relevant and try to contribute to the overall product that Ring of Honor is and if I can do that, if i can add years to my career and add years to my productivity in a Ring of Honor ring, it's not just for my own benefit, it's for the company's benefit, but we all win, in that respect, I feel like it's positive for me and it's positive for ROH."

Daniels has seen it all during his illustrious career, including the rise of women’s wrestling. When his career began, women were few and far between in wrestling, and those who were involved were often used as managers or valets. Later, their roles evolved but the sexual nature of the product overshadowed anything women achieved in the ring. The last five years, however, women have begun to emerge as top talent in wrestling and have been given an even platform to compete with men. Daniels said wrestling has always been a reflection of society and the women’s revolution in wrestling coincides with the women’s revolution happening worldwide.

"I think it's a mirror of what's happening in society,” Daniels said. “In the ‘90s, even in the early 2000s, women's wrestling was looked at as an attraction, sort of a novelty. But in the past number of years, you've seen the emergence of such great athletes, especially in the WWE because, let's be honest, that's what most people equate to the rise in women's wrestling, the rise of women like Charlotte Flair and Sasha Banks and Becky Lynch and Paige. You look at all these women who have come up and they've forced the wrestling world to take the predicate of women's wrestling off and just call it wrestling.”

Daniels, for one, couldn’t be happier.

“I certainly applaud the WWE for their forward-thinking and giving the ladies the opportunity to main event pay-per-views and main event Raw and certainly, like I said, in the sense that a rising tide raises all ships, what the WWE has done, I think pro wrestling is following overall. And you can argue who did it first and who did it best, but no matter what, it benefits all of the women in professional wrestling at this point and it's certainly giving opportunities to ladies like Tessa Blanchard and Candice LaRae and Santana Garrett. And then within ROH specifically, you look at women like Brandi Rhodes and Sumie Sukai and Kelly Klein, Mandy Leone ... they're getting their opportunities, not just in Ring of Honor but also across the world. A lot of those ladies have had the opportunity to go over to Stardom to wrestle for Japan and build their experience level to the point where now the Women of Honor tournament is taking place right now. We'll be crowning the first Women of Honor champion in the near future."

Daniels paid tribute to some of the women who helped blaze the current trail for the rise of women in wrestling.

"For me personally, I'd have to certainly mention Mickie James very first and foremost,” he answered when asked who he felt were some of women’s wrestling’s trailblazers. “She was in one of the first women's matches in Ring of Honor history, her and Sumie Sukai. I remember being in the Murphy Rec Center [in Philadelphia] when they wrestled and hearing the crowd go insane for those two. It's a testament to their skill and their talent that both of them are still in the top echelon of women's wrestling today. You also have to look at women like Lita and Trish Stratus, who raised the game and brought a big spotlight to women's wrestling when they had their runs. Working with people like Gail Kim throughout my time with TNA as well, and Awesome Kong, Tara/Victoria ... those women, too. In TNA, ladies like Angelina Love and Velvet Sky and Madison Rayne, they did a lot in TNA that also raised the spotlight of women's wrestling overall."

Daniels noted that there have long been women ready for pro wrestling, but pro wrestling has only become ready for them most recently.

“(Women in wrestling have) been in the position at some point where they felt they were ready and the business hadn't caught up to them,” he said. “This is the best period of time for them. The mentality of the companies overall has sort of caught up to society's viewpoint and now we're getting these women who are showing that it doesn't matter, men or women, professional wrestling is professional wrestling and you enjoy it and the fans around the world are sort of speaking out and letting them know, 'Yeah, we do enjoy women's wrestling, to us it's just wrestling, women or men.'"

In ROH, the women’s division is flanked by the likes of Sakai, Tenille Dashwood [former WWE star Emma], Deonna Purrazzo, Hana Kimura and others. This weekend in Vegas, ROH will mark another milestone, its 16th anniversary show, by doing what it has done well since its debut show nearly two decades ago.

"The thing that separates Ring of Honor from the rest of the crowd, even despite the fact that we've become more of a television-based product in the last couple years, in the end, we put more focus on what happens bell to bell in the ring than anyone, I think,” Daniels said. “I'll put our roster against anyone else's in the world. That to me, for people who are interested in seeing the best of the best bell to bell in the world, I feel Ring of Honor is the best place to be for that. That to me is the selling point for anybody who wants to see professional wrestling that really hearkening back to what they grew up watching, that bell to bell, hard-hitting style."